Tag Archives: art

Saturday, March 19th, 2017 – Ever since I moved into my apartment there’s been one thing that’s been bothering me: The incredibly low pressure at which the water trickled out the kitchen faucet. So a couple of weekends back I decided to fix it: So I descaled the faucet, took it apart and built it together again the way it was supposed to fit together and – voilà: Ever since it’s been working like a charm. And to this day that makes me very happy. Small pleasures sweeten my life 🙂

Sunday, March 20th, 2017 – The week before last I fell sick. I’d caught the crud. My throat felt thick with a cold and over the weekend I got a very sore throat. It later turned into a bad cold with fever, coughing and sneezing galore.
So I put on my beanie and surrounded myself with my favorite stuffed animals… okay, my one favorite stuffed animal: Hedwig, the snow owl.

Monday, March 21st, 2017 – Later in the week I started to feel way worse and when the voice at the end of a 10 min. meditation session I tried to follow asked me how I was feeling now the first answer that shot through my head was “Like someone had stuffed my lungs through a meat grinder!”

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2017 – It has become customary for me to celebrate my second Birthday on March 22nd every year. It was that day in 1994 when I was rushed to the hospital with a thunderous headache (seriously, it felt as if that monster from the “Alien” movie tried to escape from my skull instead of my gut :-p) and a boiling fever, a stiff neck and arched spine. Turned out I had a bacterial meningitis and after a spinal punctuation to confirm the bacterial part they flushed me with antibiotics immediately. I was lucky the first antibiotics the pumped into my system worked and thus I am who I am today: A lucky one who has gotten through some rough patches.

Thursday, March 23rd, 2017 – That’s the face you make when your doc tells you that you’re not suffering from the flu but “just from a common cold”. The addition that it was a severe cold and undoubtedly serious doesn’t really help to pick up your ego after such a blow.

Friday, March 24th, 2017 – I dared to go for a walk as the weather forecast promised a lot of sun, thanks to the southern wind coming over the alps and usually bringing splendid weather with it. Unfortunately, the “Föhn” – or “chinook wind” as it is sometimes called by English speakers – was quite frosty and fierce this time and almost blew my hair off my head… as you notice my beanie’s already gone. Luckily, I took it off myself. And just in time – a ferocious gust of wind managed to blow a fellow walker’s cap off so he had to chase after it – and in my imagination he’s running after it to this very day.

Saturday, March 25th, 2017 – I have to admit: I’ve never been the biggest fan of curtains. Mostly because however thing they are they steal my daylight. So I try to avoid them wherever I can. Since I do have a pair of windows that is facing directly my neighbors windows/balcony door I decided I needed a little privacy, so I designed my own visual cover. I am pretty pleased with the result. And I dare say my neighbor doesn’t have much to complain about either.

What did you do last week? Did you manage to get healthy through this winter?

It’s not like I didn’t know anything about zentangling, meaning I could have attended the advanced course but I was interested to learn the basics, the phylosophy behind the whole zentangle movement. And it is fascinating, I’m telling you.

My very own first tile

The three hours were well spent, even if it meant that I sounded like a failing steam-engine Sunday morning. That would most certainly have happened anyway. At least now I know that I had three memorable hours with a bunch of creative ladies who to begin with thought they were utterly talentless but as it turned out they were all amazing artists. That’s the beauty of zentangling: It takes out the stress of competing with either your own expecations or others work – each and every piece is unique and beautiful in it’s own way. See for yourselves:

I hope you all had an inspiring weekend with at least one activity that took you to that place of calm contentment that one only finds when being in the here and now, finding the flow.What’s your go to activity to find that state?

Remember that conference I mentioned in my last blog post? (Für Deutsch hier klicken) Well, it turned into one of the most splendid conferences I’ve ever attended. We were busy but also had lots of fun. And here’s proof that my urge to doodle doesn’t leave me outside conference doors – in my mind my manager’s diagram strongly resembled a couple of minions; and that’s what I turned it into:

I love creative business meetings!

Jill Ellis

My personal highlight of the conference – a motivational speak by the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team Coach Jill Ellis – was contrasted by the only downside of the conference: The never changing effect that air-conditioning has on me; Friday morning had me wake up to a massive throat ache. Thus I left the conference a tad early (skipping the gala diner…) to go into hibernation. This way I slept right through half of the most gorgeous weekends this land has ever seen – this year 🙂 But dreaming about it was almost as good as actually enjoying it on Sunday:

The weekend before the conference my friend sent me picture from Port Stephens, Australia, where she attended a Cirque du Soleil show called – wait for it – Luzia:

My very own personal show – I like!!

Now last week, still coughing my way out of the cold-zone, I was presented with an incident that at first enraged, but then quite amazed me. The week before, in a timely manner, I mailed the documents the U.S. government requires in order to – hopefully – remove the conditions on my U.S. resident permit (for all of you curious enough: it’s got to do with the fact that I obtained my green card based on marriage… now of course the government wants to make sure this is not a fake marriage, totally understand). As mentioned, I submitted the whole stack of paper in time, even considering the sometimes questionable efficiency of postal services. But I was taught better: The mail arrived in such a timely manner that homeland security actually received everything one day too early. One day.And thus last Monday I found the package back in my mailbox which taught me a thing or three: The postal services work more efficiently than we may give them credit for. And the government has rules that are being followed to the letter. Even if it means filling in a pre-printed form and costs $10 in stamps. Note: Even here rules are not mere guidelines… seriously, I as a Swiss should have known better…

At the beginning of last week I wouldn’t have thought it possible that the week would end with so much commotion. While I pursued my usual activities – raising to a challenge (28 day plank challenge) and preparing for such (half-marathon in Austin in February 2016) – Friday was not only characterized by our office Halloween, but mostly by massive flooding and seven (as far as I’m informed) tornadoes that left a swath of destruction in and around Austin. The flood claimed at least 6 lives while the tornadoes left the usual scene of destruction (photos at the end of the report).

Carved Cheshire Cat Grin Pumpkin

Fortunately, October closed on Saturday on a friendlier notion with dry and occasionally even sunny weather and a cozy evening with watching movies and carving and coloring pumpkins.

After cursing my $1 kids felt tip pens for the hundredth time because the simply don’t draw the color that’s displayed on their caps I finally decided to get myself some (hopefully) decent markers. They’re not quite Copic markers but at least look a little like them and at first use I’m quite inclined to make them my new favorite toys. Of course, I will need quite some practice to get decently artistic with them but hey – that’s the fun of it, isn’t it?